


how dare you threaten

by artsyspikedhair



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Child Abuse, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Obscurials (Harry Potter), Physical Abuse, Redeemed Dudley Dursley
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-18 10:14:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11289168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artsyspikedhair/pseuds/artsyspikedhair
Summary: Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of #4 Privet Drive were proud to say that that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. Nothing odd or strange ever happened in their house- not, at least, until a baby boy was left on their doorstep along with the milk and newspaper.





	how dare you threaten

Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of #4 Privet Drive were proud to say that that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. Nothing odd or strange ever happened in their house- not, at least, until a baby boy was left on their doorstep along with the milk and newspaper. Mr. and Mrs Dursley already had a son, a young baby boy only a year old. They loved their boy more than anything, but this - this freak that was left on their doorstep opened up a well of hatred that Petunia Dursley had forgot she held inside of her. There were now two forces driving the woman: love for her son, and hatred of anything that reminded her of magic. Still, it would not do to let the neighbors see them leave a baby out in the cold, so she brought the boy inside. 

The two forces inside her fed each other. Petunia, and her husband Vernon, who followed her lead, doted on their child, feeding him when he cried and cuddling him when he needed to be burped. The other boy was left on an old mattress that Petunia had stored in the cupboard. The family was not overly cruel to the other child, after all, he may still turn out normal, but they did not give him any of the affection they gave their son Dudley. 

It was when Dudley learned to walk, and almost fell over but stood again, as if some force was helping him avoid the hard ground, that the Dursleys knew that their nephew was a freak. Nevermind that he was locked in his cupboard and hadn't even seen what had happened. He must be to blame. After all, Dursleys are perfectly normal, and that boy was not a Dursley. 

As Dudley became aware of the world, as children do, he asked many, many questions. The Dursley parents tolerated these questions when they were stuff like why is the sky blue or what is Grunnings? Those questions could be answered by knowledge, and would not make anyone look bad. It was only when Dudley asked "Why does the boy have to do the garden while I don't?" that the Dursleys came up with the two rules that both boys would follow: Do not ask questions, and do not do anything freakish. Vernon did answer Dudley's question, explaining "It's because that boy is a freak, and freaks don't get to go to daycare like good boys and girls do. Now no more questions!" 

Dudley grew up, learned what it was that caused the boy (Dudley didn't learn his name until Year One) to be a freak. He had magic. Dudley saw it with his own eyes, when, while out in the garden, the other boy had been talking to snake, in snake language! Dudley knew about magic from the story time at the library, where fairy tales were read. Dudley knew his parents must know about the freak's powers, and that's why he sleeps in a cupboard and makes food for the family without getting any himself. But Dudley also knew that when he played soccer with Piers, sometimes the ball would move when Dudley hadn't kicked it and there was no wind. Dudley once fell off the slides and hurt himself, earning lots of kisses from his mommy, but then the next day the bruise was gone and there was no pain. Dudley figured his parents must not know that he has magic too. And that, suddenly, meant that Dudley, as a boy of five, had to stop this force inside him or else his parents would not love him anymore. 

Dudley had been encouraged by his parents to hate the boy. But when Dudley, at age five, realized that the two shared something in common, he could no longer hate him. He still pretended, but when school started, the pretending was over. Dudley learned that the boy had introduced himself to the class as freak, but his name was actually Harry. The teacher held Harry after class, when the rest of them went out to recess. Dudley played with Piers, but was worrying about Harry. What if freaks weren't allowed to go to school? What if they found out Dudley was one of them? 

What actually happened was the teacher called the Dursleys, asking about Harry's home life, and if any other kids teased him, if Dudley teased him. When Vernon got off the phone, he had a gleam in his eye he had never had before. "Boy..." he said menacingly. "Get over here!"

Harry did as told, his small body shaking. Vernon grabbed the fist thing he could find, which happened to be the poker for the fireplace, and began hitting Harry with it. "Useless freak!" Vernon cried out. "We let you live under our roof, eat our food, take the clothes off Dudley's back, and this is how you repay us?!" Dudley was watching, shocked. He had never seen his father look so angry, and wasn't it their fault for calling Harry a freak all the time instead of his name? Wasn't it? 

After what must have been at least half an hour, Vernon shoved Harry into his cupboard. Dudley had been pretending to try to read while the chaos was going on. Soon Vernon had to go back to work, however, and Dudley felt it might be safe to try to help his cousin. The cupboard was locked from the outside, but Dudley knew how to work locks. 

"Harry?" 

Harry looked at Dudley, his back bruising from the assault on it. "What do you want?" 

Dudley didn't know what to say. Could he trust Harry not to tell his parents? "I..I think I might be a freak too." 

"You can't be. They love you. 

Dudley thought back to falling off the slide. He had really wanted the pain to go away. He tried really really wanting Harry's pain to go away, thinking maybe because Harry was definitely feeling the same, maybe they could fix him together. 

Harry gasped. The hurt hadn't gone away, but it felt like it had been healing for three days already, the pain dulled as though his body was used to it. "How-how did you do that? Why?" 

"I told you. I- I know it's different because you're not their son, but if they knew I was like you, they'd hate me. I'm really sorry, but they're my parents and I can't have them hate me. I'll try to help you, when I can, but only if you promise not to tell." 

Harry thought about the offer, knowing he had no idea what parental love was like or how bad it would feel to lose it. To have someone in the house who didn't hate him... "Okay, I promise. They wouldn't listen anyway." 

Years passed. Harry kept his promise, almost forgetting at times Dudley was like him. The beatings got more frequent as incidents happened, at least until it became clear someone might notice the bruises. Then Harry's punishments became getting locked in the cupboard. Dudley didn't befriend Harry, knowing it would come back to his parents, but he didn't scare off people who tried to. None of Harry's friends lasted long despite this. None of Dudley's did either, after he refused to beat people up, knowing from the one time he had stood up for Harry and subsequently gotten Harry's punishment, that being beaten was not something anyone should ever do for fun. Dudley was fat though, and so he got picked on. Dudley hid this from his parents, making them think he was still friends with Piers. Piers wasn't mean to Dudley after Year Five anyway, when a rumor had spread that Piers tried to kiss a girl and so all the other boys thought he had cooties. They became friends again. 

On Harry's eleventh birthday, the letters came. Dudley had been hiding his magic for years, having no more accidents and only using it when he thought Harry would otherwise die. He wasn't allowed to be freakish. But hundreds of letters came for Harry, and the family had to leave their house on Privet Drive. Dudley had gotten a letter on his birthday, but he hid it. No others came for him. Even when it came to freakish things, Harry had it worse. 

Then the day they spent on the island came about. An unusually large man came for Harry, giving him a cake and telling him about his parents. He didn't ask if Dudley was a wizard. Dudley wouldn't have been able to tell him anyway. The magic had been squashed out of him. He ended up with a pig's tail, another reminder that his weight was going to follow him everywhere. 

It was after the surgery that Dudley disappeared. He was so angry, at the wizard man for taking Harry but not him, at his parents for teaching him to hate himself, and at the doctor for complaining that Dudley was unhealthy. His anger consumed him. He told his parents he was going on a walk, to say goodbye to the neighborhood before he had to go off to Smeltings. Instead he went up in smoke, destroying the doctor's house and his elementary school. It was like he had blacked out in anger. 

At Smeltings the outbursts happened more often. Piers was not there, and the other boys all made fun of Dudley, making oink oink noises and calling him names. Dudley was a freak in too many ways to count, and he just got so angry. At one point he destroyed the entire building during one of his blackouts. He was smoke and he was anger personified. The people at Smeltings had to have their memories wiped afterwards, because Dudley was gone. He ended his rampage at #4 Privet Drive, where his parents would wake up to find their 'perfectly normal' son dead on their doorstep.


End file.
